Moving forward

As expected, cleaning the car hasn’t been the most enjoyable part of the restoration, but after all, somebody has to do it. Glass abrasive appears to have caked itself over everything, even some areas that haven’t seen sunlight since the car was assembled back in ’69. Needless to say, it’s been tough work. In addition to the confounded glass, I had also neglected to scrape off the gummy adhesive that lines the windowsills and doorjambs when I removed the windshield and doors, so it was about time I tackled that task. Using a gasket scraper, I first removed all excess gunk on the car, before applying denatured alcohol to eliminate the residue it left behind. Since we’ll be painting the interior soon, I focused on the inside of the car, pulling all the remaining fiberglass insulation out of the roof as well as all the glass abrasive I could access.

The fruit of my labor: two sizable globs of fiberglass and window goop.

I’ve decided to leave the rear quarter panels alone. Should I, or any future owner down the line, decide to return the car to its original S-code specifications, re-replacing the panels to include the fake side scoops would be a significantly irksome task, considering it could have been avoided to begin with. Finally, there’s also the financial matter: the car will never be more valuable as a Boss 302 clone than as an original ’69 S-code.

The next few steps are to weld in the roll cage and sub-frame connectors, lead-in the left rear quarter panel seam, and have the underside, interior, and engine compartment painted. Looks like quite a bit of fun ahead of us yet!